I'm Ignoring You

No the "I" is not me, and the "You" is not anyone who reads this. My reference is to this well hidden but eagerly sought Connecticut Warbler on the boardwalk at Magee Marsh last week. He is the "I" ignoring all birders.

I'm not the type of birder who goes to great effort to see a new species. I'll make some effort and I'm happy to see them but they're not a treasure hunt worth serious sacrifice. I think this may be a minority opinion. There are a lot of serious life bird searchers out there.

But when someone tells me that there is a rarely seen warbler right in front of me, and down on the ground not out of sight 100' up I'll try to find it, see it, maybe even sketch it. Well I have to say that an hour later when we finally got a good look at this bird we both were ready to quit birding for the rest of the afternoon. This was just far too mentally exhausting!

Why? Well I think this watercolor based on a photo I took shows why. This bird was buried in the ground foliage and forest detritus, much of which was taller than it was. And it wasn't in any hurry to move around and give potential viewers a clue as to its whereabouts. In fact there was plenty of time to just stop and do some preening.

I particularly liked this photo when I discovered that some of my shots had actually captured it because of the extreme nonchalance the Connecticut Warbler showed in the face of at least 50 people at any given time trying to get a look at it. Many were trying to add it to their life list, a rare opportunity right there before them.

I did a lot of sketches of warblers while I was there and showed most of them recently. I look forward to doing paintings or prints based on them. Photos will only be of secondary importance when I work on them.

But here there was only this one photo. After hogging valuable boardwalk space for most of an hour we moved on as soon as we'd gotten a good look and I'd shot a couple of quick photos. It would have been too rude to then sit there and try to sketch him.

But I had to laugh when I saw the photo. So my first work starring the warblers that we saw is based on a photo. This wasn't my intent. But it seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass up. I tried to give some sense of how buried he was in the foliage. I don't know these warblers and the colors in the photo are confusing. Was it blue, gray, brown, a combination? That's one reason I don't like to paint birds I don't know well. But this one I just couldn't resist, even with the confusion

This is a very busy, non-art week for me. I'd like to go back into this. But I suspect that I won't, at least this week.

Accepted Wisdom in Field Sketching

One of the truisms of field sketching of birds is that you should only put down on paper what you recall seeing. You shouldn't make guesses. I think the main reason for this is that you can then trust what you've put down, as little as it may be.

This makes sense to me. But I have a hard time following it. I always want to put in something like the wing bars, or the bill, or the legs, assuming that I can make a good guess as to where they were and what they looked like. Often, if not most of the time, I'm wrong.

I thought of this as I looked over the field sketches I did at Magee Marsh over the last two weeks. At the end of the day I'd often look through guides that I had, especially a Richard Crossley's new photographic guide, to compare sketches and photos. Inevitably I'd see where I had something wrong.

But, at least for me, I'm not sure that this is bad. There's something about seeing that you've made a mistake, and often published it, that tends to make you notice, and remember, what you've done wrong. So for instance I noticed that my generic bills are often too thin, or too short, that my wingbars are placed too high or low on wing of some species, etc. I'm not sure I'd even know this if I didn't put down what I thought I'd seen and then found out I was wrong.

So I guess there are two ways to look at this: one, a sketchbook is a compendium of things truly seen, even if only in brief segments; and two, a sketchbook as merely a tool in learning to see and to sketch. I understand and can appreciate both. But for me at least I do see a lot of value in the second viewpoint.

Oddly enough I thought of this at the very end of our trip. A wildlife rehab clinic had a display of injured raptors and owls in the Magee Marsh parking lot as we stopped to use the bathrooms on our way out. Bald Eagles, Peregrines, Red-shouldered Hawks, Saw-whet Owls, Barn Owls, etc. I had to tear myself away and resist getting out my sketchbook. But what really struck me was the way the peregrine lifted his wings up a bit, like a person shrugging his shoulders, and then let his wings hang down.

I'd seen and sketched this exact pose on an Osprey I'd seen last fall. But when I got it home it looked thoroughly wrong. The bird almost looked wider than high because of the width of the shoulders. But when I saw the peregrine I knew that this was what the osprey had done. So my sketch was accurate even though it still looks thoroughly wrong. So there's the other side of the argument: the value of putting down exactly and only what you see.

With that said the rest of my sketches. At top a number of Semi-palmated Plovers.

Below a quick sketch of a Tri-colored Heron and a Common Moorhen.

Below a 'Wild' Turkey, that acted as though is was a domesticated bird and not wild in the least. Still an opportunity I coulnd't resist.

Below a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Palm Warbler, feeble attempt at Great Egret in flight, and a sketch of a female Cerulean Warbler. The last was interesting in that I actually using the sketch to make notes to help me ID the bird. It was only after I'd made this sketch that I and my wife, along with a few other observers, agrred that it was a female Cerulean.

Below two of the last birds I sketched on our last auto tour of the NWR, a Swamp Sparrow and the first Willow Flycatcher of the year.

Below a Pied-billed Grebe, Lesser Scaup, and a lifer Horned-Grebe. The last surely seems worthy of a painting. I wish he hadn't been too far away to even think about taking a photo.

And finally another Chestnut-sided Warbler, Ruddy Turnstone and Least Sandpiper. Sad to say the proportions of the head of both Turnstone and Sandpiper are off. And I viewed both through a scope. Even then though birds don't necessarily sit still. I think that both moved and so I tried to finish them off from memory. In both instances the heads were just too small. Soon it will be time to refamliarize myself with shorebirds.

The last talk we went to at Magee was about fall birding in Ohio. The speaker talked about the more subtle beauty of shorebirds as compared to breeding Wood Warblers. It's true that they do have their own unquestionable beauty. But for now it's time to proceed with warblers I think. Shorebirds will come soon enough.

Biggest Week in American Birding

It advertised itself as 'The Biggest Week in American Birding.' Being a bit of a skeptic I would normally take such a phrase with a huge grain of salt. But we've birded the area around Magee Marsh and Ottawa NWR in NW Ohio numerous times in the fall and have seen a lot of birds. And we've both heard and read that it is far, far better birding in the spring, in particular for warblers.

So this year we planned our vacation to put us there for most of the first two weeks of May. Since this time coincided with The Biggest Week in American Birding we registered for it and a number of talks and trips, all for a very low price.

I really want to showcase the field sketches that I did there but I also want to commend everyone who was involved in planning the week. Much of the success of our trip was of course the birds. But for anyone like us, who signed up for various walks and talks, mainly by Kenn Kaufman, I also want to give credit to the humans involved. They did a wonderful job. I'm sure it was an exhausting 10-11 days for everyone at Ottawa NWR, Magee Marsh, Black Swamp Bird Observatory and all the others involved. For us it was a resounding success and we'd like to commend all of their work in making the human side of it run so smoothly.

Anyone who follows this blog knows that both I and my wife love warblers and that I hoped this year I'd finally get some good field sketches of them. I'd guess we saw about 500 warblers during our time there, many within 6-12 feet. Though the boardwalk at Magee Marsh got incredibly crowded at times it still was an extraordinary chance to see and sketch warblers.

When there is such a wealth of subject matter close by it's sometimes tempting to just take photos. And I took about 350. Or at least I kept that many. But on numerous days I forced myself to just look and sketch and not get out the camera.

So without further ado. Most of these are done from looking at the bird, trying to get a mental image, and then putting it to paper. Inevitably I make mistakes in working this way. But I am improving.

At top a Prothonotary and a Magnolia warbler. Face on Magnolia needs some work.

Below a Nashville warbler seen from below, at least 50 feet up in the trees, as well as a Black-throated Green warbler.

Below a Blue-headed Vireo, Bay-breasted Warbler and Semipalmated Plover.

Below another Black-throated Green, Chestnut-sided and what I think was a Philadelphia Vireo. I used the sketch to help figure out what it was, basically a Warbling Vireo with an eye that seemed too big.

And finishing off today's sketches an American Woodcock and a Least Flycatcher below.

This includes about half of my sketches. Soon the other half. I've written in the past about how fieldsketching has been a struggle for me and how I've finally gotten comfortable with it. That really proved true here. There are numerous mistakes in these sketches. But there also is a wealth of material for future prints and paintings.

Documenting Cuckoos and Other Migrants

It was a little less than a year ago that I documented my email to the PA Rare Bird List about an immature Yellow-crowned Night Heron by showing photos and field sketches on my blog. Today I'm doing the same thing but this time with a Black-billed Cuckoo.

I probably should have written the blog post before posting to the list but didn't think to do that. In any case here are some field sketches from today. First page shows a not to hot sketch of Blue-gray Gnatcatcher taking nesting material from Tent Caterpliiars and the Black-billed Cuckoo on the left hand side. On the right a singing Yellow warbler, just the head of an Eastern Kingbird, a Solitary Sandpiper and a Song Sparrow. I was struck by the little curve at the tip of his bill.

Second page shows a Northern Flicker in grass. It was hard to sketch him because he kept disappearing behind grass. Below him a Warbling Vireo. And on right another attempt at the Solitary Sandpiper.

There are two types of field sketches here: one is based on a bird I'm looking at through a spotting scope, e.g. the flicker and sandpiper. The others are birds that I looked at in binoculars, tried to get a mental image of, then drew. I did this with both cuckoo and vireo. In those cases I often know that the bird will be gone before I get the scope on the bird. So I continue to try to refine my ability to memorize what I see, a technique much espoused in Tim Wootton's new book 'Drawing and Painting Birds.'

This latter technique isn't foolproof. Sometimes I just don't remember everything correctly, especially things just seen for a split second, like the Warbling Vireo looking over his shoulder, possibly preening.

In any case that's the story on these sketches and the Black-billed Cuckoo. Things I did note on sketch that may not be legible are that the bill was black and eye red. I'm not sure I've gotten everything else correct.

After posting this I decided to try a quick watercolor of the bird. It's based on the field sketch with help from a couple of photo bird guides and my one personal photo of a Black-billed Cuckoo. One problem with painting them is that they are a bit drab: the bright red ring around black eye is the only exciting area. Otherwise just a drab, though beautiful brown on top, and a clean white/cream below. Though I showed tail spots in sketch I really couldn't see them well. The tail was more in profile so I used went back to that in painting. But it was hard to get the background of sycamore leaves, which is where he was, to work with the subtle colors of the cuckoo. I think that they overpower the bird a bit. So some other time perhaps I'll try this again. For now though it's my documentation for a first of year Black-billed Cuckoo.

Doings at Carpenter's Woods

I hate to let the Blackburnian slip out of the top position in this blog but life, and migration, moves on. And today was the day the Wood Thrushes returned to Carpenter's Woods in Philadelphia. I went looking for warblers and other neo-tropical migrants since warm weather seems to have dumped them in huge quantities throughout Pennsylvania over the last few days.

But no warblers today. That's okay though. Sometimes there are so many new birds it's hard to appreciate any of them, sort of like trying to see Rome in a day. It's hard to believe that Carpenter's Woods is ever quiet. A major road one side, renegade leaf blowers seeming to run non-stop on all other sides. Sometimes I'm surprised I can hear anything there. But there were moments today when it was quiet and all I could hear was the rich, almost orchestral song of the newly arrived Wood Thrush.

The thrushes often sound like flutes, which do indeed have a rich sound. But it almost seems to be cheating Wood Thrushes to say that they just sound like one instrument. They are so rich I think it's better to liken them to an orchestra.

When I lived in San Francisco many, many years ago there was always someone down near Ghirardelli Square and Fishermsn's Wharf advertised as something like a one-man band. A walking box with a person inside that spat out just about every sound you can think of. At least that's my recollection. Of course there is an avian equivalent - the Gray Catbird. Many of them have also been back for a few days, yackety-yack, yackety-yack. Still it's nice to see them back. Soon they'll be in our own backyard, scarfing down the blueberries.

Some readers may remember my Wood Duck watercolor of just a month or so ago. I've not done anything that detailed since. And in the work at top I've really gone quite far afield. But I really do prefer liveliness, a sense of life, to something that looks more like a well-rendered photograph.

Today along with the Wood Thrush I saw an American Robin bathing in the small stream, then raising his wings up and shaking off the water. I also saw a familiar spring sight, a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher picking apart a Tent Caterpillar 'nest' for nesting materials. I did quick sketches of all of these today. They are not great and I'm not going to show them.

But the very act of trying to sketch these scenes makes it easier to do a painting based on them. I've taken the first step. The other steps are easier. So this is a felt tip pen sketch of a composite of thrush, robin and gnatcatcher. I think it captures at least some of the excitement of being out today. I hope Eric Ennion would commend me.

Black and Orange Easter

I think the title says it all: an Easter with a celebratory Baltimore Oriole, or American Redstart, or least likely of all a Blackburnian Warbler.

I'd seen a Louisiana Waterthrush in Philadelphia on Friday. I know that they breed here, at the Wissahickon, near where I often bird. But I've rarely seen them. And I'd like to. They're one of our favorite warblers. On Friday I went a few miles further north than I normally do at the Wissahickon and sure enough I heard and saw a waterthrush. Someone I met said that they were often in that area all summer.

So I thought we'd get out today before the rain came in and give Jerene a chance to see it. We did and it was a great thrill. Later we saw another one a few hundred yards away which may or may not have been the same bird.

Further on we stopped to try to track down a first of year Yellow-throated Vireo, another of our favorite birds. We heard it but couldn't find it. Then amidst at least 10 Yellow-rumps Jerene spotted a different bird but couldn't get the words out, much like the time a brilliant Rose-breasted Grosbeak landed in the feeder next to our kitchen window.

Finally I heard Baltimore Oriole, no BLACKBURNIAN! Sure enough there was a male Blackburnian warbler in full breeding plumage not more than 15 feet away. He stuck around for at least 15 minutes. Then further down the trail we spent another 15 minutes with either him or another male Blackburnian. If you ever see one up close, and aren't color blind, you know how striking they are. That golden orange or sometimes fire engine red throat is just unbelievable.

I didn't bring my camera and I'm happy I didn't. Again I was forced to look at the bird and didn't waste time trying to get photos. The field sketch I did was not very good. But it noted many of the salient aspects of this beautiful warbler. I hope I've gotten them down in this quick watercolor.

Blackburnians love hemlocks. a dying species in much of the eastern US. They're a fiery jewel in the rich black and greens of hemlock needles, branches and truck. I've tried to capture that here. All of the background is from my imagination and memory.

P.S. One of the very first bird paintings I did, before I was experienced to realize how little I know about birds, was the painting that serves as the header for this blog: a Blackburnian. In it I took great artistic liberties with a photo that I'd taken of a Blackburnian in Shenandoah National Park. It was/is bold, really more abstract than realistic. But it captures the boldness of a Blackburnian. Today's watercolor seems a fitting counterpoint to it. Same bird just slightly more realistic in rendering.

Time to Paint a Warbler

With all the time I've spent out fieldsketching and hunting warblers and other migrants over the last two or three weeks I've had a sublimated desire to paint a warbler or two. But they're only here once a year, or twice actually if you include fall migration, and it makes most sense to get out and see them in real life. I've been doing a lot of sketches of Yellow-rumped warblers, you know the ones that you can ID just by their quick, flitty movements, only slightly less speedy and flitty than a kinglet. And I continue to learn as I do so.

But they are also beautiful birds. Wouldn't it be nice to get one down in paint? Well I was out fieldsketching again today. I saw my first Louisiana Waterthrush and Yellow Warbler of the season. Yesterday I saw my first Solitary Sandpiper, Fish Crow, Green Heron, Great-crested Flycatcher and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. And, more Yellow-rumps. I took a few photos of them as well as doing sketches.

The quick watercolor at top is based on one of the photos. But it's also based on all the fieldsketching. The beauty of fieldsketching is that it forces you to see how a bird is put together. Then when you see a photo, which is always an abbreviation or distortion of the real thing, you're better prepared to use its information to paint something that's true to the bird. So as I said this is based on a photo. But more than that it's based on all the time I've spent looking at and sketching Yellow-rumps over the last week or two.

The Year of Sketching Wood Warblers

I've been wanting to do successful field sketches of wood warblers for at least three and probably more years now. Wood warblers are my favorite birds and field sketching is my favorite type of art work, not that I'm accomplished at it.

But warblers move so quickly that so far I've found it next to impossible to sketch them from life. Of course I can do it from photos but it's just not the same. I thought of that again today when I deliberately left the house without a camera. Just my binoculars and a sketchbook.

And I'm happy I did. There's something frightening about trying to sketch them while they flit in front of you but also something exhilarating. I thought about my camera when I saw my first Common Yellowthroat of the season but was happy I didn't have it. With no such temptation I could try to really look at the bird and capture a mental image that I could then put down on paper.

Fortunately the male Common Yellowthroat was hanging out near a very small stream at Carpenter's Woods in Philadelphia along with one Swamp Sparrow, the first I've seen this year, a few White-throated Sparrows, many Ruby-crowned Kinglets and some Blue Jays and American Robins. So if I just stood still and kept my binoculars on the spot I could continue to get glimpses of the warblers and other birds.

At top is the second version of the male Common Yellowthroated Warbler. Beneath is a Swamp Sparrow, a Black-and-white Warbler, whose eye-patch I have a bit wrong, and two Ruby-crowned Kinglets.

For years I wrote about how impossible it was to sketch kinglets. But I'm finally getting the hang of it. Though I have to add that I only did these two sketches when I had at least 25 and possibly 50 different views today. But they move so quickly that they're gone by the time I get my binoculars up. Still I'm starting to at least get comfortable with them, and with wood warblers.

So far this year I've now sketched from life these wood warblers: Palm, Yellow-rumped, Black-and-white and Common Yellowthroat, along with numerous kinglets. The only one I saw but didn't sketch was a Pine. Hopefully I'll get another chance.

These sketches are not perfect by any means. But I think if I can at least get comfortable with sketching the general shapes that then I can start paying more attention to details, like all of the various markings on the Black-and-white warbler. I got the chest streaking correct today but completely botched the wings and face. I'm sure I'll get more opportunities.

All in all though I think that this might really become the Year of Sketching Wood Warblers. I'd be thrilled if I could add at least another 10 species. That's something to look forward to.

Next big question: Is it too early to consider a means of working with color in the field when sketching wood warblers? I don't want to get ahead of myself since I'm just starting to get comfortable with warbler shapes. On the other hand it seems criminal not to be able to include some sense of their striking color.

Palm Warbler Linocut Edition Completed

Well this has been a long print, especially for one that's black and white and doesn't have the complications of reduction color prints! Perhaps it took so long because I had high expectations for it, and because I wanted to get it done in time for a competition. In any case here it is.

One of the things I'm happiest with is that I was able to construct the scene from my imagination and other sources. But I never really saw this scene. I saw the Bloodroot, as well as the other leaf litter, and I saw a Palm Warbler, but never together in a scene like this. I sort of got it working in the earlier watercolor but I think it works much better and is more cohesive and believable here. I do thinks that's a virtue of pursuing the same subject in different media. You get to refine the idea. Of course if as a viewer you didn't like the idea to begin with you might have a different idea about repeating the theme.

One other thing of note. Linoleum cut really lends itself to line. So it's very tempting to put outlines around objects. This can flatten them out, like cutouts, especially if the outlines are wide. But you can also use line for hatching, something that etching and engraving excel at. But this use of line tends to create a sense of volume, just the opposite of a bold outline that counteracts volume. This print has some of both. At one point I did partially remove a bold outline on one of the Bloodroot leaves at lower left. It just made the entire print look too flat. On just about every print I do it seems that I fluctuate between flatness and volume, bold, graphic line and more subtle, modeled hatching. There's rarely a clear winner. But I hope that the print survives the battle.

One distraction while doing this print was backyard migrants, particularly a Hermit Thrush, and migrating warblers and other birds at Carpenter's Woods. Yesterday was so nice that I had to abandon the print early in the day and do the following field sketches.

The left hand page includes two first of year Yellow-rumped Warblers at top and a first of year Black-and-white Warbler, White-breasted Nuthatch, and one of many Ruby-crowned Kinglets below. On the right hand page another Palm Warbler and another Hermit Thrush. I didn't use a scope on any of these. They were all based on just looking at the birds in my binoculars, as long as they stood still that is, and then trying to get down on paper what I'd seen. I feel like I'm definitely improving in this direction. I hope this will finally be the first year when I can do some decent field sketches and perhaps even field watercolors of the neo-tropical migrants, especially my favorites the Wood Warblers.

Oh yes, the print is an edition of 12. It is 6x8, or 8x11 with print borders. Gamblin oil-based ink on Rives Lightweight paper.

World Wide Guinea Pig

I'm not on Facebook. I don't use Twitter. In fact I can't fathom how anyone in their right mind would. Aren't there enough distractions already? But I'm not a Luddite. I wasn't exactly an early adopter of the internet but I do remember using Gopher to sort of browse the not yet existent web. I was thrilled to get into a library at Harvard, the Fogg Museum Library I think. And I remember sitting in front of my computer in disbelief the first time I accessed a computer in another country, all before WWW was invented.

I'm sure that Facebook and Twitter are old hat to some and they're on to new hot stuff. And soon it will be passe too. Technology moves at an inhuman speed. But I'd like to announce my own gift to those seeking the cutting edge (please excuse the biggest cliche of the last 100 years outside of 'pushing the envelope' or 'breaking boundaries): The World Wide Guinea Pig!

One of the tenets of the open source movement in technology is that what you make doesn't have to be perfect when you make it available to the world. Many, well hopefully many, users will tell you what's wrong. Or fix it themselves. So there's constant feedback and things get better. I find a similarity between putting out software that's not yet perfect and displaying art that may not yet be quite done.

I'm obviously exaggerating things when I say I've developed a new cutting edge technology. But it is something that works for me: putting a version of a new painting or print up on the web so that I can get a different view of it. As I've mentioned before it's also a false view: the light behind any images on a computer screen make the image more vibrant than any painting or print can ever be, unless it also has a light rigged up behind it and is painted on a transparent material. So I know that part of what I see will make it look better than it really is.

But many if not most artists have a very hard time 'seeing' their work. I know this sounds hard to believe but it's true. I think we get so close to it that we can no longer see it. That's why artists often look at their paintings in mirrors: so they can get another perspective. I've never done that. More likely I'll leave the room and come back, hoping that that first new view will make me see my work differently.

But today I have the World Wide Guinea Pig: this blog, or my web site, or the Wildlife Art thread at Birdforum. All of them allow me to see my work fresh. I also could just put the image on the computer and look at it there and never actually put it on the web. The end result is the same in that I see it in a new perspective. But the web also offers the odd chance that someone might make an interesting comment on the in-progress work.

In any case all of this is just a prelude to saying that I've spent much of the day going through 10 more versions of the Palm Warbler in Bloodroot linocut. Version 17 is at top. I'm posting it because I'd like to get another view of it. And also in case anyone is interested in the progress in the lino.

I think it's getting much better organized. I'm not yet sure how much I have to do. I'd like to finish it by tomorrow in order to enter it into a competition. I'm going to include a few of the earlier versions from today below. Most are in the same color ink but I did do a bit of minor experimenting along the way so you may notice some color differences.

Version 15 below:

Version 13 below:

Version 11 below:

It was also such a beautiful day today that I couldn't resist searching for some migrants, and sketching them, today. I did see a couple more Palm Warblers and that reminds me that I do need to make sure that this can't be misread as a Yellow-rumped Warbler, a bird I also saw today. The eye-ring and bright rump might lead to some confusion. One more thing to think about as I finish this off.